


We Got You

by Miss_of_Mystery_36



Category: Agent Carter - Fandom, Marvel
Genre: Angst, Mention of torture, Multi, hints at past relationships, minor fluff, surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 17:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13594764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_of_Mystery_36/pseuds/Miss_of_Mystery_36
Summary: Daniel's not being Sousa-y, and it doesn't take Jack long to figure out why. The answer may not be all that shocking, but where it leads just might be.





	We Got You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhiteLadyoftheRing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteLadyoftheRing/gifts).



A frowzy Daniel Sousa paced before the squad room of the SSR, eyes shadowed from the tireless hours of work the night before, but glassy from something as of yet unknown. Jack studied his friend’s expressions and exhausted gait, curious as to why he barely looked at any of his men.

 _Oh,_ Jack’s stomach curled into itself as the realisation struck him, _Peggy. Where the hell is Carter?_

‘You all have your assignments. Thompson, you’re with me.’ His words were sluggish, empty, coated with a blithe tone. The sudden shift from lime to lemon made anyone with working ears flinch. ‘Why are you all just sitting there? Go, now!’

Daniel stumbled a little as he turned to the closest desk, crutch dropping right beside him and scuttling to the ground. The agents had already dissipated, luckily for Daniel’s sparkling reputation. Jack slowly rose from his seat and moved towards his friend, outstretching his hand, only to have it knocked away.

‘Just… give me one minute,’ he muttered.

‘Sousa, what’s goin’ on? You’re not acting Sousa-y.’ 

A sharp glare pierced Jack’s eyes, no more was said. Daniel gathered his crutch and quickly swiped his forearm across his cheek. They grabbed their coats and headed for the door, walking in silence until they reached the car. Each sat, Jack turning to Daniel before starting it up. All Daniel did was sit there, staring down with his chin clenched.

Their destination was scrawled onto a piece of paper, thrust into Jack’s hand with little more than a flicker of panic. It was when they reached it that Jack realised why. They’d driven twenty minutes down the warehouse district promenade, noticing the smoke before they’d even come close to the edge of the city. The thick smoke choked them from the moment the red coals were visible, the building Daniel had written down entirely demolished.

‘I think we’re a bit late to this one, Sousa,’ Jack remarked through his hand, hoping it would limit the smoke coating his lungs.

Daniel stared into the rubble, crouching down to dust off a brown leather handbag. ‘I know. We weren’t here to save the building.’

Jack turned to look at him, eyebrows furrowing at the bag. ‘Then why _are_ we here?’

‘Salvage mission. I need to know if she was here when…’ Daniel halted with a not entirely subtle catch in his throat. ‘I shouldn’t have sent her alone.’

It took two hours for Daniel and Jack to search just a quarter of the space, both drenched in sweat by the time they covered half. Then, they found it. A skull, charred and nestled between two halves of a broken pillar, disparagingly far from the rest of the skeleton. They stared for a long while, Daniel’s leg giving out, and Jack being unable to hold his emotions in.

Across town, the sounds of their agony were broadcast into the room were Peggy sat, tied much too tightly to a chair. As conscious as she could manage to keep herself, muttering in an adept struggle against the material shoved in her mouth.

Around her stood several men, suited and armed. Yet, she struggled. Her eyes flickered between each face in her field of vision, including the one belonging to the one who stood behind her with a knife to her neck. She stared directly into his eyes, daring him to give her a reason.

‘Enough of your struggling, Miss Carter,’ one voice announced, covering the mutterings of all others in the vicinity. He moved forward through the small gathering of people, a man clad in shadows close behind. ‘Do you know why you’re alive right now?’

Peggy arched her eyebrow with a dry sarcasm, gesturing not so subtly with her eyes to the gag that restricted her from talking. The man who had spoken nodded to the man behind Peggy, who in turn pressed the knife a little deeper into her throat. She felt the knots she’d been fidgeting with loosen, at least enough to elbow him quite strongly.

The knife clattered to the floor and her hand flew to her mouth, ripping out the gag before being surrounded and under the barrel of at least fifteen guns. She stuck her hands in the air, lips curling up to the side as she smiled.

‘Just evening out the fight. And of course, freeing my words since that one wasn’t planning on it,’ she added, lifting her fingers slowly to her neck. When she pulled them back, they were dampened with fresh blood. ‘Someone’s going to pay for that, among the other injuries I’ve accumulated in the past however many hours.’

‘You’re rather talkative, Miss Carter. I must say I’m surprised, but not entirely.’

She tilted her head accusingly. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

He turned to the shadowed man, summoning him forward. ‘I believe you know my bodyguard.’

As the shadowed figure became illuminated, Peggy’s stomach dropped through the floor. She knew the face well, but it was one she thought long since gone, lost to an unforgiving ravine. Before her stood James Buchanan Barnes.

‘By the look on your face, I’d say you recognise him. This here is our star pupil, not entirely experienced yet, but soon he will be.’

Peggy shifted her view across to the seeming leader of the group. ‘What are you going to do to him?’

‘Oh, it seems you misinterpreted what I mean,’ he retaliated. ‘We won’t be doing anything to him, rather… him… to you.’

The SSR was empty when Daniel and Jack returned. While Jack headed for the liquor, Daniel locked himself in his office and turned to his already battered filing cabinet. With one breath and a driven fury, Daniel lifted his crutch and started beating the thing to within an inch of its destruction.

Jack was light with his understanding, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how Daniel felt. It had only been a few weeks since he himself escaped a rather brutal turmoil, but this was bad. They both knew the skeletons they’d found weren’t Peggy, but she was still gone and in the hands of some unknown foe.

There were very few leads left at the site, which in all honesty means only one. Car tracks, very specific detailing, but disappearing before they lead anywhere pertinent. His thirtieth or so strike into fury venting, Daniel stopped. Jack was almost worried at the silence, but Daniel’s expression as he left his office was not one of anger or panic, but possibility.

‘Conk yourself on the head with your crutch again?’

‘What?’ Daniel queried, snapping out of his thought. ‘No. No, I just had an idea. Peggy.’

There was a moment of consideration from Jack, when he realised the entire lack of information. ‘Gonna need a bit more than that.’

Daniel released a deep exasperated breath, but nonetheless explained just exactly what he’d come to realise.

The silence that had filled the building where Peggy was being held captive now rippled in between her shouts, screams, and the temptations to plead for her life. Each second drew her closer to finally giving in, closer to giving up on herself in order for one moment of relief that might not even come. Each slice, cut, burn, and otherwise inflicted injury pulled her torturer deeper and darker into his own personal hell. 

She watched as he pulled yet another tool from the workbench, turning to her with not even a hint of malice. It was just empty nothing, blank slate, the tiny flicker and hesitations that flashed inside him ripped away by those who stood watching him. The few times he was caught, a shot of electricity rocketed through his spine into his brain.

Not only was her own pain more than too much, but having to watch Steve’s best friend, and someone she considered very close to herself suffer as well, that made her want it to all stop. She didn’t know what it would take, but she was close to agreeing to whatever terms lie within.

It was then she heard it, the sound of a polite ding from the elevator she’d been dragged into. That was about as much as she heard, apart from a few very thick and solid thuds down the hall. As for seeing, that had gone black quite a while before. The things she felt were nothing more than pained, drawn out too long, numbed. Then there was smell. Blood and bleach, sweat and fear.

When she came to, there was nothing. Not for a while, at least. It was slow when it came back, so slow that each mumble of worry only caused her to drift even further from her consciousness. Most of the men were long gone, taking Bucky with them. The rest were unconscious, and bloody deservingly so. Given Peggy and Bucky's connection those few years ago, it was only fair that her first word upon waking was his name.

‘Bucky…’

Daniel’s grip around her shoulders tightened ever so lightly. Once he and Jack had gotten her off the table, they had laid her against Daniel, being probably the comfiest thing in their reach. He gently moved one hand to her hair, not quite as perfectly curled as usual, pulling her up a little and pressing his lips to her forehead.

‘It’s okay, Peg. You’re safe.’

‘Bucky?’ Jack couldn’t help his curious although suspicious glance. ‘Ain’t that the guy she and Steve used to hang around with? Seems a little odd she’d be asking for him when _we’re_ here.’

Daniel shot him a look, one that silenced him very quickly. 'Not the time, Jack.'

Jack had to agree, but his concern for Peggy seemed to grow by the moment. 'She okay?'

Peggy's head rolled around on her shoulders, her eyes struggling to stay open long enough to see them, muttering and mumbling under her breath. They knew she wasn't, but she would be. After all, it was Peggy. Jack had insisted on carrying Peggy outside to the car, half inclined to carry Sousa as well. It seemed the crutch wasn't serving him so well with how bent out of shape it currently was, the human-sized dints taking a toll on the aluminium build.

Daniel sat in the backseat, Peggy's head rested on the folded up coat in his lap. It was yet another thing Jack had offered, something almost uncharacteristic for him. And yet, no one would complain about his sudden appearance of compassion. Perhaps it was how much they'd taken care of him after his shooting, or maybe something else, but that didn't matter. They were both there for her, and that was important.

By the time Peggy's mind caught up with her body, they were all back at Howard's- or rather, Peggy's part within Howard's. No one else was there, something Peggy would be grateful for when it came to Jarvis' harping about her not taking care of herself. She hugged them both once regaining control of her arms, fighting the urge to cry out or wince at the pain. She hadn't said anything, which was starting to concern both her boys. 

'Stop looking at me like that, both of you,' she scolded lightly, pulling her cup of tea to her lips. 'It's quite unnerving.'

'Are you okay?' Jack asked, incompetent in the way he said it, and yet still hoping for a yes.

She faltered for a moment, thinking back to what she saw. _It must have been delirium, there was no way he could have survived..._  Peggy turned off her brain and flashed a meek smile, putting down her cup and extending her hands to each of them. 'I will be. For now,' she began, rising from her seat, 'I'm just going to have to...'

Peggy's plan to hide away in her private quarters didn't entirely work, her legs wobbling just a little too much and sending her crashing back down to the sofa. More worry crossed Daniel and Jack's faces, but her gentle reassurances and insistences reminded them just who she was.

'So Carter, about you and "Bucky"...'


End file.
